2. Late-season apple varieties do become sweeter with near-frost temperatures, because cool weather triggers the conversion of starches into sugars.

3. The amine form of 2,4-D is much safer. The ester form is more volatile, which increases the likelihood that the herbicide will vaporize and drift onto valuable trees, shrubs, flowers and vegetables.

5. The gray, powdery coating on foliage is a fungus disease called powdery mildew.

6. Roses cones alone don't usually provide adequate winter protection to roses, because there's still too much open cold air around the canes. Increase their effectiveness by stuffing them full of leaves or straw.

7. Mowing leaves back into the lawn instead of raking provides the benefits of nutrition, increased moisture retention and weed suppression.

8. Although plants are thorny, it doesn't protect them from rabbits. They nibble canes, thorns and all, as though they were candy.

9. Unfortunately not. Because bees mix pollen from various trees as they visit apple flowers, seeds produced within fruit are of mixed heritage, and the resulting seedling trees would be different from Honeycrisp.

10. Roots circling around a soil ball should be cut by slicing down through the rootball in about four places, plus across the rootball's bottom.